AI Forum
Prof. Usama Fayyad
Northeastern University, USA
Bio
Usama Fayyad is the inaugural executive director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University and professor of the practice at Khoury College of Computer Sciences. He is Chairman of Open Insights, a technology and consulting firm he founded in 2008 after leaving Yahoo! to help enterprises deploy Data-driven solutions to grow revenue from AI and Data assets.
Bio
Usama Fayyad is the inaugural executive director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University and professor of the practice at Khoury College of Computer Sciences. He is Chairman of Open Insights, a technology and consulting firm he founded in 2008 after leaving Yahoo! to help enterprises deploy Data-driven solutions to grow revenue from AI and Data assets. Usama became the first person to hold the Chief Data Officer title after Yahoo! acquired his second startup, as RVP he also founded Yahoo Research Labs.
Fayyad’s previous roles include Global Chief Data Officer at Barclays Bank and Founding Executive Chairman at Oasis500. He served as co-founder & CTO of OODA Health, held leadership roles at Microsoft and founded the Machine Learning Systems group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where his work on machine learning resulted in the top Excellence in Research award from Caltech and a U.S. Government medal from NASA.
Fayyad earned his Ph.D. in engineering in AI/Machine Learning from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and holds two Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees in Engineering, MSE Computer Engineering and M.Sc. in Mathematics. Fayyad has published over 100 technical articles on data mining, data science, AI/ML, and databases. He holds over 20 patents and is a Fellow of both the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He has edited two influential books on data mining/data science and served as Founding Editor-in-Chief on two key journals.
Prof Hugh Durrant-Whyte
NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Australia
Bio
Hugh Durrant-Whyte is the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer and Natural Resources Commissioner.
Bio
Hugh Durrant-Whyte is the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer and Natural Resources Commissioner.
- From 2016-18, Hugh was Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence.
- From 2014-16 and from 2002-2010, he was a Professor and ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney.
- From 2010-2014, he was CEO of National ICT Australia (NICTA), and from 1995-2010 Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR).
Hugh is a world-leading authority on machine learning and robotics, and applications in areas including cargo handling, mining and defence. He has published over 300 research papers, graduated over 70 PhD students, and has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, including being named 2010 NSW Scientist of the Year and 2008 Engineers Australia NSW Engineer of the Year. In his career he has worked with many major companies and has co-founded three successful start-up companies. He is particularly well known for his work with Patrick in delivering the automated container terminals in Brisbane and Port Botany, and for his work with Rio Tinto in pioneering and delivering the automated “Mine of the Future”. He is an honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia (HonFIEAus), a Fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE), Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS).
Scientia Professor Toby Walsh
UNSW, Australia
Bio
Toby Walsh is Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales, research group leader at Data61, adjunct professor at QUT, external Professor of the Department of Information Science at Uppsala University, an honorary fellow of the School of Informatics at Edinburgh University and an Associate Member of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW.
BioToby Walsh is Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales, research group leader at Data61, adjunct professor at QUT, external Professor of the Department of Information Science at Uppsala University, an honorary fellow of the School of Informatics at Edinburgh University and an Associate Member of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW.
He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, and of AI Communications. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of the ACM, Journal of Automated Reasoning and the Constraints journal. He has been elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and the European Coordinating Committee for AI in recognition of his reseach in artificial intelligence and service to the community. He has won the NSW Premier's Prize for Excellende in Engineering and ICT, the Humbolt Award, the Research Excellence Award of the Association for Constraint Programming and the .IJCAI Donald E. Walker Distinguished Service Award. He has been Secretary of the Associtation for Constraint Programming (ACP) and is Editor of CP News, the newsletter of the ACP. He is one of the Editors of the Handbook for Constraint Programming, and the Handbook for Satisfiability.
He has been Program and Conference Chair of the main conferences in Constraint Programming, Automated Reasoning and Artificial Intelligence.